


Dead Men's Tales

by LittleRaven



Category: Ginger Snaps (Movies)
Genre: Autumn, Bad Ending, Canon Compliant, Culture, Dark, Folklore, Future Fic, Gen, Original Character(s), POV Outsider, Post-Canon, Were-Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-08 07:31:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21232100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRaven/pseuds/LittleRaven
Summary: Two traveling folklore enthusiasts visit Bailey Downs in the second half of the nineteenth century.





	Dead Men's Tales

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scioscribe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scioscribe/gifts).

The woods are full of things, and girls shouldn’t wander near them. There are many such stories warning girls, owing to how they need their edification in this form; “Little Red Riding Hood” is a popular one. This might account for the similarities between that story and the rumors concerning the local woods, though it is far from the only explanation possible. After all, this was a wilderness once, and dangerous enough with the animals, the unpredictability of finding good food and water, and more than any other thing, the cold which still seeps through bone and sinew to this day. Why shouldn’t people have filled it with sightings of wolves of unnatural size, and girls who would look almost human, if not for their yellow eyes and their sharp nails, jaws as powerful as those of the wolves? 

They say these things even now, as they are written here. When the trees begin to lose their leaves, and the chill becomes deep, the wolves become hungry. The howling grows with the length of the nights. Stay out of the woods then, don’t stray far from the town. There are women, long of hair, who would be beautiful if not for the shine in their eyes. They lift their hands to beckon, red and black hair streaming behind them in the wind. Many a young girl, heeding the call over the words of their elders, has been lost to her family this way, never to be seen again. Some claim that this is not true, that the girls do return; they point to the empty houses on the edge of town, doorsteps covered in wreaths of flowers and baskets full of sweets. The offerings, placed there before dusk, are always gone by dawn. 

As part of our project to collect and examine the legends of the Canadian countryside, we will amuse ourselves with an experiment, and stay in one of the empty houses of Bailey Downs for the night. We will record the experience here after it is done. 

\- From a notebook found near the remains of Jerome Waters and Frank Oldbagger


End file.
